The Hypocrisy Of The Government Towards Online Casino Sites
11 Jan 2007
There's no doubt that the last year was full of surprises for the online casino industry. Many countries, but specially the United States, started questioning the legal aspects of the online gambling industry, some of them even banning sites completely. Every fan of online casino sites has already heard about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and there's a chance that next year won't be any better. The biggest complaint of the industry has to do with the hypocrisy that some of those countries are showing when it comes to the online casino industry. In the US, for example, horse-racing and land-based casinos are legal, but for some reason online casinos are not.Many publications have raised this issue lately, questioning the real motives of the US government and the recent anti-online casino law. The real answer, as is many cases, has to do with money. The land-based casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City generate more than 30 billion dollars a year, making it very hard for the government to close its doors. Online casino sites, at the other hand, are still lagging behind the "real" casinos when it comes to revenues, which makes the government's job much easier.
The hypocrisy of the government can be shown very clearly by looking at the criticism of gambling as encouraging bad elements in society, but letting the Las Vegas' casinos continue their business as usual while banning online casino sites. It will be very hard, if not impossible, to close down all the online casino sites operating from the US, but the government's fight against them can certainly cause losses, something which is already happening around us.
